How You & Your Assistant Can Work Better Together

Download Printable Article By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant (UPDATED JULY 2015) Trust in the workplace is always a difficult, but necessary, part of running a successful practice.  A lot of estate planners, regardless of his or her professional designation, struggle with this concept.  Although just about every single one of these professionals could benefit from having some kind of assistant or other administrative support, they have difficulty in trusting others to take on important tasks.  Unfortunately, estate planners are only ever making any real money if they are either meeting with clients or doing some kind of marketing or networking…

Is Your Receptionist Losing You Business?

By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant | Volume 2, Issue 2 (February 2014) In a time when a lot of people utilize e-mail communication, the telephone is still, by far, one of the most common forms of communication for businesses.  In a personal service industry such as estate planning – – regardless of whether you’re an attorney, financial advisor, CPA, life insurance agent, trust officer or some other kind of advisor to clients – – telephone communication plays an even bigger role for having a successful business. So, why is that we see so many estate planning professionals have flawed systems…

8 Year-End Practice Building Tips to Implement RIGHT NOW

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law As your business winds down near year-end (unlike 2012, when everyone was doing last-minute wealth transfer planning because of anticipated changes in the estate tax laws), it’s a good time to work on your business – – rather than in your business, as we practitioners are often trapped doing throughout the year. Hopefully, this article will serve as a brief checklist of action steps you can take now to assure a more effective, profitable and enjoyable 2014.  By the way, this…

7 Tips for Taking Better Notes & Being More Efficient!

By Kristina Schneider & Megan DeLaGarza, Executive Assistants Whether you’re an executive assistant or any other type of administrative staff member, note-taking is an inevitable and unavoidable task that you will have in your daily routine.  There are so many different details and tasks necessary to complete your job that it is impossible to keep track of them all.  If you aren’t currently in the practice of taking notes during your meetings with your boss or supervisor, we highly recommend that you start now.  It’s a great way to prevent overlooking the small items and, if there’s ever any confusion…

Reflections on Building a Boutique Firm: Looking Back Four Years Later by Tom Wallerstein

Back in July, my firm celebrated its fourth anniversary. I can’t believe it has been that long. It seems like yesterday that I was sitting at my desk at Quinn Emanuel, thinking about cases worth millions of dollars but still too small to be economically handled by traditional Biglaw firms. I wondered if I might try to serve a growing market hungry for less expensive, but still high quality litigation. Not long thereafter I was conspiring with my partner over the details, drafting business plans, and conducting informal marketing surveys. As my firm approaches its fourth anniversary, it’s interesting for…

Practical Planner – Your Planning Team (Volume 8, Issue 3)

Martin “Marty” Shenkman, Esq., CPA, MBA is an estate planning attorney and Certified Public Accountant who authors a number of publications each month, including his monthly e-mail newsletter, “Practical Planner“. Below is the second installment from Marty’s May/June 2013 newsletter. To be added to Marty’s monthly e-mail distribution list, e-mail newsletter@shenkmanlaw.com. YOUR PLANNING TEAM Summary: Fostering a coordinated financial and estate planning team is one of the most important steps that you can take to assure that your planning is properly handled. My apologies if some portions of this article ruffle feathers, but that’s far better than the adverse consequences…

How “Electronically” Organized Are You?

By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach In last month’s newsletter, we discussed the top tips to get yourself more organized in your office space and through your daily workload, but your organization isn’t just about what’s on the outside.  How about your electronic files on the computer?  If you’ve ever spent more than five minutes looking for a file or trying to find an e-mail to respond to, then you might not be as electronically organized as you should be in order to be an effective and efficient assistant. As a follow-up to last month’s article, here are some tips about…

The Next “Ultimate Level” 2-Day Attorney Training Announced

REDONDO BEACH, CA—The Ultimate Estate Planner, Inc. is pleased to announce the dates for its next and third 2 and a half-day practice-building attorney training program, “The Ultimate LevelSM”. The next Ultimate Level program will be held on Thursday, October 3rd through Saturday, October 5th in beautiful, sunny Redondo Beach, California. It will feature a tour of Mr. Kavesh’s law firm, Kavesh, Minor & Otis and this time will be limited to fifteen select attorneys (and their key staff members and associates). Interested in taking YOUR practice to the “ultimate level”? If so, call us at 1-866-754-6477 for more information…

Five Simple Tips for Being a More Organized Assistant

By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach Being an organized assistant is important when supporting a busy professional advisor or attorney, especially one that may be meeting with multiple clients and managing multiple projects and priorities (like most professionals are doing).  Organization isn’t just about how your office looks, but it is also how you manage yourself and ultimately what can become your thoughts and actions.  However, sometimes just the act of organizing your surrounding environment is enough to help organize some of the rest of your chaos.  Staying organized with your paperwork, your desk or office space and your to-do…